A town hub in transition

Tuesday

Dec 31, 2013 at 12:01 AM

CIMARRON - On Jan. 1 the end of an era will occur at the intersection of U.S. 50 and Main Street with a passage so smooth that few will notice.

Just as it was for Jim and Sandi Coast 38 years ago, the couple is now selling the Clark Pharmacy to Matt and Kimberly Monical - and the pharmacy, gift shop and soda fountain will be in the hands of another local couple starting out in life.

With one day left before the transition, Jim Coast was experiencing mixed emotions as he saw to all the details of the business transaction.

"Their young energy is going to be a great thing for Clark Pharmacy," Coast said of the Monicals. "I am anxious to see what they will do."

Coast has been reminiscing as he prepared for the change. It's easy to see himself and Sandi in Matt and Kimberly's shoes with all the excitement, plus the anxiety, of new ownership. Jim was where Matt is today when he returned home after graduating from pharmacy school. The Coasts bought the business from Ralph and Malee Clark on Jan. 13, 1975.

The pharmacy on the corner, with its pressed tin ceiling and tiled soda fountain, has always been a popular hangout for its malts and ice cream sodas, and continues to attract the next generation of school kids every afternoon.

Like all Cimarron kids, Matt Monical grew up stopping at the soda fountain most afternoons.

"Everybody knows Clark Pharmacy. Between 4 and 4:30 p.m. this is the place for school kids to go," Matt Monical said. He and Kimberly plan to keep the name and the history alive, as they take the business further into the 21 century.

Clark Pharmacy began in the 1930s, owned by the Clarks. At the time it was one of two pharmacies in town. Clark Pharmacy was in the middle of the block, while Tuggle Drug was on the corner of U.S. 50 and Main Street. What is currently the store's gift shop was once the Cimarron IGA, followed by a restaurant, sharing the building with Tuggle Drug. In 1968 Clark purchased the larger Tuggle building to expand his pharmacy. Then he created two doorways between the former restaurants and created a gift shop that is still thriving today.

What is also thriving, according to Coast, is the town of Cimarron. With a population of 2,204 the town experienced a slight dip in the late 1990s, but began noticing an increase in population in recent years.

"Young kids keep coming back," Coast said. "It reminds me of 1975, when kids our age were moving back because there were opportunities. The trend seems to be happening again. It's still a thriving town and it is cool to watch the young kids come back and the transition that is taking place at the local businesses."

According to Coast, the economy is good in western Kansas in towns like Liberal, Garden City and Dodge City, because of agriculture and new industry including wind energy.

"That growth feeds into these small towns," Coast said. "While some of the state is suffering, our unemployment is at 3 percent or less. There are jobs that go unfilled because there are not enough people."

Both Matt and Kimberly left Cimarron to attend college.

"I don't think anybody leaving their hometown thinks they will move back," Matt Monical said. "That thought wasn't in my head until my final year at pharmacy school. I knew I wanted to work at an independent pharmacy and I wanted to own my store."

While a student at the University of Kansas Pharmacy School, Matt Monical had done one of his nine rotations at Clark Pharmacy. At the time, Coast asked Monical if he would be interested in coming back if the opportunity presented itself and, when the time was right, taking over the business. He returned after graduation and, for the past four years, has been working as a pharmacist alongside Coast.

Matt Monical admits there are some difficulties returning to one's hometown.

"Jim had been the pharmacist 30-plus years and everyone knew his name," Matt Monical said. "I envisioned people seeing me as the little boy who grew up here."

But he has worked through those early concerns and now feels ready to take over the helm of the smooth-sailing ship. He sees Cimarron as a thriving town and a good place to be taking over a business.

"It seems like it has been growing steadily and I'm happy to be a part of that and continue on with it," Matt Monical said.

Coast and his two sons will continue Coast Health Services, a private business that fills prescriptions for nursing homes and assisted-living facilities throughout southwest Kansas. They have moved that business from the upstairs of the pharmacy to a building on Main Street.

"It's the right time and we have the right people in place," said Coast.

The plan is for Matt Monical to manage the entire business and prepare the prescriptions as well as do the simple and complex compounding of prescriptions. Kimberly Monical will oversee the managers of the gift side and fountain.

The two most popular fountain drinks will remain on the menu - the Batman special, which consists of cherry vanilla, milk, lime and 7Up; and the Kramer special, with strawberry syrup, simple syrup, lime juice and Mountain Dew.

"It's just sugar, sugar and more sugar," Matt Monical said of the recipe.

The couple's daughter Aubrie, who will soon be 4, is extremely excited to go to work with her mommy and daddy at the soda fountain. The next generation is already cutting her teeth at the corner of U.S. 50 and Main Street.

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